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Friday, January 15, 2016

Bloggie hopes to facilitate open discussions about forthcoming college mergers. It seems to Bloggie that already some are attempting to contain and herd these discussions in self serving directions. We need fewer not more bureaucrats. But perhaps in this space we can have a free range discussion of what faculty (not just a select few) and students would like to see.

Bloggie, for one, would like to see a reunited college with a new dean, nationally searched-for, ideally, but in any case, not someone with a lot of old baggage, and not some one with a history of soul-selling; simplified requirements that would included freedom from burdensome language requirements for students (substituted for by research methods or other advanced analytic classes that may be more relevant to life in Toledo and environs); strong independent, adaptable departments capable of interdisciplinary efforts and degree programs; and also a strong Honors program!

What do you think?

Amendment: Bloggie has added relevant materials below and will add additional relevant materials if they become available. Bloggie apologizes for format changes caused by reproducing documents here. These are Draft Documents. An additional document was added below as of 31 Jan.Document 1.

-
January 2016

The
faculty of the current College of Languages, Literature, and Social Sciences is
keenly interested in and excited by the prospect of a new college, for which we
suggest the name (to be determined).

The
intriguing challenge we have before us is the shaping of fourteen diverse
departments and nine programs into a rich and unified entity, one that is
deftly responsive to change, to student need, and to the exigencies of higher
education in the 21st century.The arts, the humanities, the social and behavioral sciences, and
interdisciplinary programs should be unified in their commitment to
understanding and demonstrating how our disciplines, in their traditions and
their innovations, help create the future. The new college has the potential to
become a locus and a guide for the rest of the University in promoting the
value of liberal education, appealing to students’ curiosity and desire for
knowledge and creative expression, their wish to understand how ideas fit
together across disciplines, their inclination to enrich their professional and
practical ambitions with a sense of the great mosaic of human inquiry.It is consistent with the University’s
mission that that students find a place here to develop intellectual agility
and moral understanding, to educate their creativity, their senses, and their
emotions as well as their minds, to develop strategies for best navigating the
flood of information and entertainment that technology delivers, to learn to
balance action and contemplation, to practice the crucial lifelong skills of
listening, employing qualitative and quantitative empirical analyses, weighing
evidence, problem solving, and articulating complex thoughts, plans, and ideas.
These are high-order skills that have practical value that will not erode as
the 21st century progresses.They are essential in the development of new information and are
applicable in every field of investigation as well as business and the
professions. In creating a new college, faculty and administration can
re-envision our mutual goals, and find innovative and active ways to deepen and
enrich our students’ educational journey.A new college must be the central space in which our students think in
ways that may or may not be immediately utilitarian, but ultimately and for the
long run lead to increased knowledge and problem solving abilities and thus
prove indispensable in a globalized world.

A
University is constantly created and recreated. President Gaber’s invitation to
the faculty to participate in this particular recreation should be seized as a
healing of unnecessary fracturing and as a hope for the future. The Arts, the
Humanities, and the Social Sciences must recognize each other as allies and
collaborators: what promotes the visibility, vibrancy, and value of one
promotes the visibility, vibrancy, and value of all. We can mutually reimagine
and strengthen ties between departments and programs, our relationships to the
community, and our associations with other colleges, departments and programs
at UT. We can, and will, also pursue donor and alumni relationships across
disciplines.

Curriculum:

We
propose an interim year (Fall 2016, Spring 2017) in which divergent college
curricular requirements for students remain in place (those of CoCA and LLSS),
to allow the appropriate faculty-governing units of the new college time to
decide upon college-wide requirements, to be instituted in Fall 2017.

Student
Services and Recruitment:

Tri-College Student Services, which currently
serves students in the colleges of CA, LS and SM, has improved upon its
academic advising coverage in recent months with the addition of
department-specific advisers in larger fields (Biology, Communication,
Psychology), increasing both access and flexibility for students.One of the areas still in need of attention
is new student recruitment (DHS, Transfer, Non-Traditional students etc.).Currently, professional advisers take on some
recruitment responsibilities as a percentage of their job duties.Advising and student recruitment are both
critical components to enrollment and retention efforts, and both demand
full-time attention.A full-time
recruiter trained in our disciplines and eloquent in presentations to
prospective students on and off-campus would be a critical addition in services
to ensure both visibility and growth of a new college.

Faculty
Governance:

The
two most significant entities for faculty governance in the new college will be
the College Council and the College Committee on Academic Personnel (CCAP).

The
College Council will be the primary body of faculty governance in the new
college. It will have the responsibility for overseeing the college curriculum
and for approving any proposed changes to department and program curriculums.
The Council advises the dean on a range of issues and receives regular reports
from the dean. The Council is also responsible for making or approving faculty
appointments to a range of committees, including the college technology committee,
and it conducts elections for faculty representation on CCAP.

The
College Council should consist of: 1) Eight at-large representatives drawn from
and elected by the tenure and tenure track faculty in the College; four
lecturer faculty drawn from and elected by the lecturer faculty in the College;
three student representatives appointed by Student Government; and two tenure
or tenure track faculty representatives from each department in the College.
Departments may also send one addition representative for every ten tenure and
tenure track faculty members over ten.

In
the spring of every academic year, the Council elects a Chair, Vice-Chair and
Secretary from its membership. Traditionally the Chair serves for one year and
the Vice-Chair moves to the Chair position. An Executive Committee sets meeting
agendas and performs a range of other duties. The Executive Committee composed
of the three officers, the past Chair, and two other council members (approved
by the entire council). The Executive Committee should attempt to maintain some
balance of membership among the Arts, the Humanities and the Social Sciences,
but such representation is not a rule.

CCAP
in the new college will be composed of six tenured faculty members elected by
the tenure and tenure track faculty in the College. CCAP evaluates faculty
members at the three, four and five year pre- tenure reviews, tenure, promotion
and their five year professional assessments as outlined in the collective
bargaining agreement. CCAP membership will include two members each from the
Arts, the Humanities and the Social Sciences. Each member serves a two-year
term, and the terms for members in each of the subdivisions should be
staggered.

The
membership of CCAP in the first year of the College should consist of one
member each from the Arts, the Humanities and the Social Sciences who have
served on the previous year's CCAPs (in LLSS or CoCA). This will ensure some
consistency in the reviews from the previous year. The remaining three members
should be newly elected in the spring term.

Configuration
of Schools:

Schools
are an affiliation of departments or programs that provides a framework for
supporting creative, boundary-crossing inquiry among students and faculty.
Schools facilitate collaboration among existing programs and provide guidance
and support as new programs are envisioned and established. Schools may have a
director appointed by the college dean from the faculty of the participating
departments and programs. The director facilitates the collaborative endeavors
of the participating departments and programs. Schools may have an operating
budget as allocated by the college dean. Because schools are comprised of
faculty with tenure homes in the participating programs and departments, schools
are not eligible for representation on the college council. Schools may propose
and develop new courses, majors and graduate programs but are not exempt from
college curriculum requirements.

Organizational Chart:

Dean of the
College

Associate Dean for the Arts

Associate Dean
for the Humanities

Associate Dean
for the Behavioral and Social Sciences

Department of Art

Department of Communications

Department of Economics

Department of English

Department of Foreign Languages

Department of Geography and Planning

Department of History

School of Interdisciplinary Studies

Department of Music

Department of Philosophy

Department of Political Science & Public
Administration

Department of Psychology

Department of Sociology and Anthropology

Department of Theatre and Film

Department of Women’s and Gender Studies

Student Services:

Recruitment

Persistence and Completion
(Retention)

Advising

Career Services

DDoDDoIt
is assumed that the Dean will assign responsibilities to the Associate Deans

Administrative Staff:
Secretaries, Business Manager, etc.

Document #2.

Arts Proposal-Restructuring
NOVEMBER 17, 2015

COCA COUNCIL – ARTS REPRESENTATIVES
ARTS DEPARTMENT CHAIRS
This document is submitted in the spirit of cooperation by the above mentioned on behalf of
the students, faculty and staff that are the Arts at the University.

1. College of Visual and Performing Arts
At the November 5th meeting of the CoCA College Council, the faculty of the Department of
Communication expressed interest in removing itself from the arts departments under the
future configuration of LLSS and CoCA. Respecting the Department of Communication
wishes, the arts are presenting their restructuring plans independent of the Department of
Communication.
Our first choice would be to return to the initial arts organizational structure that resulted
from the division of Art and Sciences in 2010, to be a College of Visual and Performing Arts.
By returning to the College of Visual and Performing Arts we can maintain status with other
colleges. Returning to our former, uniquely identified status we can avoid a college
restructuring that challenges faculty trust and morale, and which may be confusing in
regards to donors, and our internal and external identity.
2. School of Visual and Performing Arts (SVPA)
With the restructuring of CoCA into a larger, newly defined, umbrella entity with the College
of Languages, Literature and Social Sciences, the Arts request the designation of School. The
School of Visual and Performing Arts will be defined as an academic unit that administers
instruction, research, and service in common, albeit diverse disciplinary fields. The faculty
of the school shall include all those members of the University faculty who have been
appointed to the constituent departments. The departments are defined as the Department
of Art, the Department of Music, and the Department of Theatre and Film.
The school shall have the fullest measure of autonomy consistent with its function and
responsibility within the college, subject to the provisions of the CBA and the University of
Toledo policies. A Director shall function as the principal administrative officer and shall be
responsible to the Dean of the appropriate College for the activities of the school.
Director of the School of Visual and Performing Arts - Duties and Responsibilities

Budgetary management of the School of Visual and Performing Arts. Serve as the fiscal
officer of the school, with the responsibility for preparing the budget in consultation
with the division/program unit or department Chairs; allocate resources to the
division/program units or departments; monitor the administration of operating and
personnel budgets; and supervise the use of resources, including facilities, equipment,
and supplies;

Work with department chairs and faculty SVPA Advisory Board for the efficient
operation of the school;

Appoint whatever administrative personnel appear to be requisite to the effective
functioning of the school office; and assign the respective functions of all personnel
working in the school;

Management of the work of the SVPA secretarial staff, IT assigned personnel, PR
Specialist, Outreach and Retention Specialist, and other support staff, including annual
staff personnel evaluations;

Develop and build on donor relationships together with the department chairs, the Dean
and the Office of Institutional Advancement;

Provide academic leadership for the instructional, research, service, and administrative
personnel of the school. Serve in an advisory capacity to the Dean in the recruitment,
selection, employment, in-service training, tenure promotion, non-reappointment, and
dismissal of academic personnel, performing duties that are in keeping with the CBA;

Coordinate with Plant Operations and the Facility Manager of the work on the SVPA
building and grounds maintenance;

Implement and update, in consultation with the SVPA Council, a long-term plan for the
SVPA;

Secure internal and external support of the SVPA mission and programs;

Develop and work with an extended Advisory Committee, consisting of University of
Toledo faculty members and community representatives;

Continue development of interdisciplinary partnerships with faculty across the
University to facilitate undergraduate and graduate activities, while increasing the
recognition of the SVPA;

Perform or delegate and monitor the development of the curricula and programs of
instruction, sharing this responsibility with committees of the school and with
divisions/program units or departments;

Supervise any graduate programs within the school. The designated graduate
coordinator shall administer the graduate program;

Teach at least one course or graduate seminar per academic year. This may be arranged
in consultation with the chair of the director’s home department;

Adhere to University hiring, personnel evaluation and other Human Resources
procedures; support the University’s and the College’s strategic goals; and observe
appropriate chains of communication when requesting support or expressing other
needs associated with the SVPA and its staff;

Prepare and submit to the Dean an annual report on the SVPA’s activities.

The Director would be a faculty in one of the schools’ departments. This would be an
administrative, non-AAUP appointment. Contractual agreements will be handled by the
President, the Provost, and the Dean.
Associate Dean in the Newly Formed College Entity
The SVPA requires an associate dean from the School to serve in the college office so that
representation in the dean’s office is balanced and fair.
In order to function in the highest possible manner and with a recognized level of
University support, the following conditions are considered essential:
• CoCA Dean’s - Operating Budget $80,800
Transfer the current college dean’s operating budget to the SVPA. The SVPA Director would
be responsible for the expenditures and allotments to departments, programming, PR
efforts and communications. (No additional operating funds were added when the

3

Department of Communication joined the arts in 2013, therefore the CoCA dean’s budget
transfers to the SVPA in full.)
• Arts Tech Fees – Retain dedicated arts tech fees, which provide 2-3 lab rotations per year
and allow us to allocate dollars beyond the rotations to state-of-the-art equipment for the
departmental media programs. The amount of funding we control as the School of Visual
and Performing Arts far exceeds the limited allocations we received as departments in A&S.
Tech Fee funding level to be determined by the SVPA;
IT Tech Support – Bradley Volk to remain the same;
• Arts Departments’ Carry-forward funds - retain for the SVPA;
• LLSS upper-division course fee - No assessment of the fee for SVPA students. SVPA
students currently pay large lab fees for their studio and lab courses. The addition of this fee
would be detrimental to the students;
• Curricular autonomy - Retain oversight within the SVPA. Current college-level
requirements remain as established by CVPA and then CoCA;
• Space Allocation - Maintain responsibility for the School’s dedicated spaces;• Administrative staff - Retain an administrative assistant for the Director of the SVPA,
the PR Specialist and the Outreach and Retention Specialist.
In order to function in the highest possible manner and with a recognized level of
University support, we make following additional requests:
• Faculty Lines – While we would like to retain control over faculty lines, we recognize and
respect that this is a dean’s prerogative and request that in addition to the chairs, the
Director also be consulted regarding faculty lines;
• Art and Music Education – We request moving the Art and Music Education majors from
JHCOE to SVPA. Faculty are and have been in the art and music departments, approximately
80% of the course work is in the art and music disciplines. Licensure and education service
classes would remain with the JHCOE.

4 Document 3.

16 October 2015

Dr. Sharon L. Gaber

President

University of Toledo

2801 Bancroft. Toledo, OH
43606

Dear President Gaber:

I write to you on behalf of
the faculty of the Department of Communication regarding the forthcoming reorganization
of colleges. Communication faculty have discussed a set of preferences that we
respectfully offer to you:

·We strongly support your reorganization initiative.

·Our
consensus and first choice, if possible, is to separate from COCA (College of
Communication and Arts) and the various Art and Music Departments in favor of
an independent Department of Communication under the auspices of a larger
organizational umbrella, the exact
name of which would be less important than its efficient functionality.

·Our larger goal is in time to form a highly marketable
and visible School of Communication, still under the auspices of the more
organizationally efficient umbrella discussed above. We believe that in this
way our new curriculum and faculty initiatives will best be deployed.

·We would hope via this School of Communication to best
bring our considerable resources (with nearly 400 current majors) to bear in
such as way to complement teaching, research and service needs of 21st
Century.

·Allow the Communication Department to remain headquartered
in Sullivan Hall, with broadcast facilities in Rocket Hall, to minimize costly
disruption of the sort incurred less than two years ago when we were removed
from Arts and Sciences. Communication faculty and staff already occupy
approximately 70-80 percent of Sullivan Hall. If this is not convenient, we
would prefer as much as possible to occupy the same space as a Department.

·Another possibility, not our first choice, would be to
align Communication as a separate and independent Department within the
Business School. Some might consider this a natural fit, although the exact
nature of such a relationship is more problematic than our above stated preference
and would need to be extensively worked out. Pragmatic, informal alignments, though,
are much easier to achieve and have already been suggested and are under
discussion.

Again, we strongly support
you and look forward to growth and success at University of Toledo.

Attached to this message is the current draft proposal for a new college created by the combination of the colleges of Communication and the Arts (CoCA) and Languages, Literature and Social Sciences (LLSS). This proposal was written by the LLSS Council Committee on College Reorganization and has been revised based on faculty comments sent to the committee as well as feedback received at LLSS Council meetings.

We are soliciting your comments and suggestions for the reorganization proposal. We want to be sure that all staff and faculty have an opportunity to help shape--and improve--the proposal.

When you read the new college proposal please keep the following in mind.

1. The departments of Art, Music and Theatre and Film have proposed a School of Visual and Performing Arts (SVPA) that would be part of a new college created by merging CoCA and LLSS. Their proposal is attached to this message.

2. While the SVPA proposal focuses only on creating a school, the LLSS Council Committee on College Reorganization proposal attempts to envision the structure of the larger college.

3. We expect that a final proposal will be developed together with CoCA's Council. Thus, our proposal expresses the committee's views about the new college as a starting point for these joint discussions.

Please send your comments and suggestions to Jerry Van Hoy (jerry.vanhoy@utoledo.edu) by January 15, 2016. Thank you for helping us produce the best proposal possible.

couple of points and concerns from senior faculty in the Department of Communication (Note, there no "s" at the end of "Communication" :)

We have made curricular changes concerning the foreign language requirement, reducing it. And we might want to reduce it still more because we perceive the requirement as (1) needlessly onerous to our students, who tend not to master these languages anyway, and (2) a disincentive to enrollment, in effect driving students away to other colleges/units. We suspect it may be the same in social sciences. In any case members of the department don't want to live under the tyranny of the foreign language department, despite how much we may praise and extol the benefits of foreign language training. The assurance in the reorganization document that this will be settled later in the new college council is not all that assuring. Personally I suggest a set of alternatives for degree requirements that would include a communication or social science degree with foreign language, and one without language, with the foreign language substituted with more higher level 3000-4000 level analytical type or seminar classes, or social statistics or math (not remedial!) or logic. Other possibilities exist of course. But we wish to preserve our curricular changes in the new college. We also have many students admitted on the basis of a reduced foreign language requirement and must honor this contract, so to speak. There is as a matter of stability.

Also I attach our message to the president, voted on by the communication department, and which has been largely unacknowledged in the process of formal reorganization discussions. As you see, our eventual goal is to form a school, but without ancillary bureaucracy.

I am also concerned about budget. We would like to see some sort of responsibility-based budgeting wherein COMM and other departments reap/keep what they sow to some fair extent. COMM faculty have for long perceived the department as a cash cow for larger organizational units.

I would very much like to attend future meetings of the LSSS reorganization committee as a delegate of the COMM department.

Last comment on the name of the new college I have no strong preference, but I wonder about the use of the term "Liberal Arts" as some have suggested. My guess is that a major portion of the population has no idea what this term means, and think it something to do with "arts" in in the sense of drawing or pastels. I suggest some brainstorming on this, although personally I could live with a nominal College of Liberal Arts, even if it had not math and sciences. We would just have some explaining to do our public profile.

BAP

Document #5

Welcome back everyone. I am sure that you are wondering what s happening with the merger discussion between CoCA and LLSS. Here is a rundown of the information at this time.

From: Jerry Van Hoy:

At our last Council meeting it was decided that our proposal should be sent to all LLSS faculty and staff for comment before we give to you and begin meeting together. I expect that the current version will be sent to LLSS faculty and staff this week with a deadline for comments by the end of the first week of classes. At that point we should be ready to share it with our colleagues in CoCA (and the Provost and President) and begin work towards a coauthored proposal.

From Dean Barlowe:

During finals week, LLSS faculty council, the dean’s office, and representatives from Tri-College Student Services reviewed the proposal written by the reorganization committee appointed by the executive committee of the Council.

Revisions were suggested, and some have been completed.

As I understand it, the proposal will be reviewed again next week, broader distribution of the revised document to LLSS faculty and staff will occur, and a meeting will be set up with CoCA to discuss the two proposals.

From myself to John Barrett on January 4, 2016:

On November 30, Ray Marchionni, Chair of CoCA Council sent the proposal from the arts and the Department of Communication request as well to Dr. Gaber, and I then forwarded it to you and Jamie. I sent Ray an email today to see if he has received anything from anyone in LLSS. Still waiting on his reply. I briefly spoke with Jamie before the holidays and she indicated that they were working on a document. I believe the plan is for a meeting between the two entities to be held after everyone returns from the semester break.

Will keep yo updated.

Debra A. Davis, Dean

College of Communication and the Arts

University of Toledo

Sullivan Hall Suite 1200

2801 West Bancroft

Toledo, Ohio 43606

Van Hoy, Jerry

Actions

To:

Wilkinson, Jeffrey‎; Patrick, Brian

Cc:

Bollman, Lisa Marie‎; Tucker, David E.

Inbox

Monday, January 25, 2016 4:00 PM

Hi Brian,

Happy New Year to you too! I am sorry for taking so long to get back to you. The beginning of the semester has been more hectic than usual.

The LLSS Reorg Committee is just finishing final revisions to our proposal. The next step is for some of us in LLSS to meet with you and the other faculty in CoCA to work out a reasonable merger plan. Today I sent a message to Ray Marchionni suggesting that the LLSS Council EC meet with the CoCA Council to begin this work. I expect that Communication will be fully participating in this process.

I understand that having to wait until there is a new college and a new college council to settle any foreign language issues is unsettling. It is equally unsettling for the Department of Foreign Languages as it is for you. However, we do not see any way to avoid this and maintain faculty governance over curriculum. The new college council will be the only council that has the authority to debate and vote on any changes to the new college's curriculum.

Students will complete the requirements they had when they entered UT based on their catalog year. Any changes to college requirements (CoCA's or LLSS's) will only affect new students. It could be a year or two before any new requirements are put in place as many faculty in LLSS would like to try to create a liberal arts curriculum for the new college that would spread the requirements across more departments. We can certainly write into the final proposal that all current CoCA requirements (for CoCA students) and all current LLSS requirements (for LLSS students) will remain in place until a new college curriculum is implemented.

The LLSS proposal says little about the new college--or department--budgets. In part this is because we are told that the budget is the purview of the administration. Nonetheless, the final proposal can certainly make recommendations about proper funding of departments.

Finally, the LLSS Reorg Committee is not recommending a name for the new college in the current version of our proposal. I don't know who gets to pick the college name, but if it is faculty and staff we can solicit ideas from CoCA and LLSS.

Hard Eight: Auto-Ethnographic Essays on Academic Culture Featuring the End of the Arts & Sciences College, University of Toledo, 2010

Daily Koan

Should the newly discovered black hole be named in honor of UT BOT?

Swamp Bubble

Do you agree or disagree that University of Toledo suffers from administrative bloat?

How do you feel about the proposed UT Degree Guarantee program? (Reposted to allow more people to vote.)

How do you feel about the proposed UT Guarantee program?

How would you grade the overall performance of the Jacobs' administration on running the University of Toledo?

COMMENT OF THE WEEK

Bloggie applauds this perspicacious observer:

"The administration is in a panic mode to implement controversial and irreversible structural and curricular changes campus-wide by early February fiscal plan deadlines with only the vaguest notions of their impacts. The plan is, according to an interview with a top administrator published in the most recent Independent Collegian, to cast out many seeds and "see what grows." This experimental garden, as most senators articulated in many different ways, seems a costly recipe for disaster. Utter madness. Stay tuned."

"Dictionary of Academia" Read it While it's Hot

A MUST READ FOR ALL ACADEMICS! Now on Amazon Kindle. Click on Professor Goat above to be directed to the book.

Comment of the Week

"This is that old tension between the corporate way of doing things and the academic way of doing things. In the corporate world, you sweep everything under the rug to make your b.s. as shiny, pleasing to the nose, and profitable as possible. In the academic world, you operate with a higher moral standard. Veritas and all that."

Comment of the Week of August 13

Re UT academic posers and hypocrites:

Have their checks calculated in units of postmodern theoretical currency and issued in photocopied legal tender notes signed by Walter Benjamin with a photo of Karl Marx and a seal stamped “In Derrida We Trust”.

Comment of the Era

Wow! Ain't that something.

-Anonymous

Comment of the Week

Mention goes to the the anonymous commentator of Feb 7, who, regarding UT President Llloyd Jacob's "Investing in Faculty" letter, stated: "If we could use the same criteria for 'investing in administrators' we could cut most of those positions."

Comments to HLC

Make sure you address your comments to HLC to the email address listed below in the "Higher Learning Commission Wants to Know" post. This may be the only chance you have to be heard. Bloggie hears that UT administration has discussed giving faculty "training" so that faculty members know how to "properly" talk to the HLC folks. How's that for stacking the deck? Does everyone get a little script to read? Make sure you practice before a mirror at being bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.

Comment of the Week!

Definitely, the Comment of the Week award goes to Anonymous 12:14 pm, Dec 3, under the "Higher Learning Commission Needs to Know" posting by Diogenes. Pithy and pointed!

TO CONTACT BLOGGIE . . .

Bloggie is always glad to consider submissions to this blog. If you have something that you wish posted please send it to:

ascbloggie@gmail.com

Letter and Petition from Foreign Languages Faculty Member

A couple weeks ago, at the beginning of summer break, we in the Department of Foreign Languages were informed that our secretary's position was being eliminated and that while she will not lose her job (she'll be transferred), that position is not to be filled. We apparently will be expected to do our own jobs plus what we can of the secretary's. That is clearly not acceptable, and so one of the steps we in FL are taking against it is an online petition now available for any who want to (including those who for whatever reason--not a registered Ohio voter, not a US citizen, etc.--cannot sign the petition against SB5), to read and sign.

I know not everyone on the blog will be interested in this; I'm not asking anyone who doesn't want to, to sign or even read the petition. I do think that there are many who would be interested and would want to sign it--if they knew about it.

It's scary to post this under my own name; I'm as afraid as anyone of repercussions. But this is simply too important to keep quiet on, and we have to do something! FL is not the first department that this has happened to, and it's almost certain not to be the last if we don't speak up in a way that the administration will hear us and in a way that makes clear that other people are seeing that it's going on.

Nemeth Does it Again

Nemeth's New Article in Collegian

The Independent Collegian has run another of Professor Nemeth's fine and provocative articles in its latest edition. This one discusses the double-talk by mouthpieces for the current UT administration concerning the effects of and reasons behind so-called strategic reorganization. Make sure you get the latest version of Newspeak 5.1 if you want to decode what UT administrators are really saying.

UT Ranks 13th Nationally on Administrative Bloat

See Appendix B of the Administrative Bloat report posted on 8/28 for evidence, but UT now has a higher proportion of administrators to students than all but 12 public universities in America. President Jacobs has finally put University of Toledo in the top tier. With Strategic Organization he may be aiming for number one.

This Blog is a free and independent information source. Contributions and comments are welcome. Contact: ASCBloggie@gmail.com WARNING AND DISCLAIMER !!!! This blog is entirely non-official!! People may express opinion here, exercising freedom of speech and association.

Recent Letters from The Blade

Jacobs' arrogance is astonishing

Recently, President Lloyd Jacobs of the University of Toledo stated that bonuses were justified because his administrators "took all the risks."

As a professor at UT, I am outraged that President Jacobs claims that administrators take all of the risks. What risks do they take that the other faculty and staffs on campus do not?

Administrators are protected by state and federal employment laws and by their contracts.

When ex-President Vik Kapoor was terminated, he remained a professor with a salary near what he was paid as president.

As president emeritus, Dan Johnson retained a salary greater than his pay as president.

In the recent layoffs, exceptionally few administrators were terminated. It seems to me that low-level personnel at UT have far more risks because the greater proportion of the layoffs have come from their ranks. And they did not have continuing salaries.

President Jacobs' answer to questions on two occasions regarding relinquishing part of his bonus was to the effect that he earned his bonuses and what he did with them was his business.

Administrators do not risk their personal money in their duties: they use taxpayer money and funds collected through donations and grants to the university.

Administrators take home salaries in the hundreds of thousands of dollars and then add bonuses for longevity and whatever else the president decides is fitting for their contracts.

However, the lower-level personnel have much lower salaries and no such bonuses. Where is the risk?

It seems to me that these bonuses are convoluted: The lower-level personnel are taking the greater risks with no bonuses while the administrators with very rewarding jobs with little risk receive large bonuses.

Am I missing something here?

WALTER W. OLSON,

Mechanical, Industrial, and Manufacturing

Engineering,

University of Toledo

It's the same old, same old at UT

I could hardly believe the arrogance of Dr. Lloyd Jacobs, president of the University of Toledo, when a reporter asked if he would be willing to forgo his bonus in light of the layoffs, raise in tuition, etc.

His comment was that he worked for it. Is that to say that the ones being laid off did not work for their pay?

All I can say is, business as usual at UT. Some things never change.

SANDY FLICK

Rose Acres Drive

UT also has checks, balances

In response to letter titled "Professors must focus on teaching," I would like to point out that the University of Toledo operates on the basis of shared governance.

This means that faculty members participate in the administration of the university.

A focus on teaching requires faculty to address administrative issues such as policies, procedures, and yes, finances, because these all affect classroom outcomes. A university with solid and equitable finances benefits everyone, including and especially the students. Just as the U.S. government is constituted to have checks and balances, so is our university government.

The UT-AAUP is one of those checks against UT administrators who most recently have displayed more concern for their own profit rather than a concern for the common good.

LINDA M. ROUILLARD,

Associate Professor

of French,

University of Toledo

Quote of the Year (so far)

The following is excerpted from the recent UT AAUP newsletter concerning the official university response to news of the bonus scandal:

. . . . Either Jacobs is misleading the media or he has misled the Board of Trustees.

President Jacobs objected to "the general tone" of the UT-AAUP Newsletter. Many persons on this campus object to the "general tone" of the Jacobs Administration. During his tenure as President, he has introduced an administrative culture of fear and intimidation. . . .

A point of logic must be raised here, with all respect to UT AAUP, the conclusions that President Jacobs has (1) misled the media and (2) the Board of Trustees are not mutually exclusive. Both would seem likely given his considerable talent at spinning "visions."

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